Program

After the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, Art Recovery LA, LA County Department of Arts and Culture, and Conservation Association of Los Angeles mobilized to provide resources and tools for those affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires. Through virtual presentations and platforms, recovery kits, and conservation clinics, over one hundred conservators shared their time, knowledge, and skills for the affected communities. This unprecedented collaborative effort was an awesome reflection of the care and compassion that conservators can share while in service to our neighbors, expanding preservation resources for those in need. 

On January 7th, 2025, fires raged across Los Angeles, changing the geography of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in unrecognizable ways. The loss of homes, treasured art, heirlooms, and cultural landmarks was unimaginable. As an LA native on the path towards a career in conservation, I sought to help my community recover from the devastation by applying my developing skills in cultural preservation.

Through my work as a conservation technician with LA Art Labs, I assisted in the remediation of over 20 soot and debris-covered collections containing works of varying materials, from paintings to ceramics to books. Additionally, I volunteered at fire relief clinics organized by Art Recovery LA, LA County Department of Arts and Culture, and other arts and conservation organizations in the Los Angeles area. During these clinics, I helped clean art and family heirlooms such as menorahs and vases that were salvaged from completely burned homes. Treatment needed to be fast-paced and generally included soot removal through the use of HEPA vacuums, vulcanized sponges, and surfactants and solvents, followed by the creation of housing for long-term storage or transportation.

In the following months, I witnessed firsthand the emotional impact of the fires. Grief and anger over the inferno manifested in many ways. Some held suspicion towards outsiders handling their damaged art for fear of further damage. Some exhibited anxiety over the cleanliness of their cherished art. Many expressed gratitude for making their keepsakes safe and stable enough to hold on to and cherish, rather than considering them total losses immediately. 

 Also notable were my own feelings towards the devastation. The initial shock of seeing the neighborhoods I frequented reduced to rubble, the surprising speed at which I was desensitized to it, and the burnout experienced working in hazardous environments like the fire zones revealed the physical and psychological risks that are faced in disaster contexts. These realizations emphasized the importance of empathy not only toward survivors but also toward oneself while engaged in disaster recovery.

In this presentation, I will share the physical and emotional challenges I faced and insights I gained while working in disaster recovery from the perspective of an aspiring conservator. I will explore how conserving treasured personal belongings contributes to communities’ resilience in the face of natural disasters, and how cultivating empathy - towards survivors and oneself - is essential to recovery efforts.

Following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January 2025, Art Recovery LA (ARLA) and LA County Department of Arts and Culture organized several community conservation clinics with support from volunteers from the conservation community of Southern California. The clinics offered conservation support and resources for community members impacted by the fires, with volunteers serving in a variety of roles; greeting, consultation, treatment, documentation, and housing for their art and heirlooms. Through this presentation, we will share the perspectives of two conservation volunteers who participated in all four clinics providing consultation guidance and cleaning for books, paper, and photographic materials.  We will touch on the perspectives presented by the scale of paper-based materials, memorable interactions with clinic participants and community members, and personal reflections on the experience, including parallels with other community clinics and recovery experiences. Assisting in the Fire Recovery Clinics represented an opportunity for us to use our knowledge to participate in the healing process of the city in the best ways we knew how. 

On January 7, 2025, a powerful Santa Ana wind event fueled the Eaton Fire, devastating the communities of Altadena, Pasadena, and Eaton Canyon. M Conservation was approached by a client whose family photographs—representing generations of history—were severely affected by the fires. The client’s insurance company valued the photos only at the cost to reprint them, failing to recognize their irreplaceable historical and emotional significance. The collection dates back to 1913 and includes a negative and several photographs from the Ottoman Empire predating the Armenian Genocide, among them the only surviving family portrait of relatives who perished and two sisters who survived. One sister, the client’s great-grandmother, became the thread linking survival to the present. Later images document the family’s life in Beirut during the 1940s and 1950s, reflecting the resilience of a community rebuilding after trauma.

The photographs exhibit significant fire-related condition issues: heavy soot and ash accretions, planar distortions from heat and moisture, and physical damage including tears and surface loss. To address the client’s needs, pre-program intern Lillian Liu is managing much of the treatment under the supervision of Head Paper Conservator Madalyn P. Meehan. This framework provides an educational opportunity while advancing the studio’s experience with photographic conservation.

During the ARLA+CALA Altadena Fire Clinic, Madalyn consulted with Ronel Namde, Associate Conservator of Photographs at the Getty Research Institute, who volunteered to assist in process identification and treatment planning alongside interns from the GRI and M Conservation.

Treatment strategies prioritize surface cleaning, stabilization, and flattening. While some soot will remain due to the porous nature of photographic supports, encapsulation will ensure long-term stability and safe access. This project underscores the role of conservation in post-disaster recovery—preserving not only material artifacts but the enduring links between memory, identity, and survival.

On the first night of the Eaton Fire, the various buildings housing the art collections at The Huntington were impacted to varying degrees.  The Huntington Art Gallery experienced the brunt of the exposure because a window latch failed under the force of the Santa Anna winds, blowing the window open for an unknown amount of time. This along with gaps around windows and doorways, brought leaves, soot, ash, and other contaminants into the building.  Other buildings proved to be porous as well, leaving staff with dozens of galleries and many hundreds of collection objects in need of recovery.  

With the institution keen to reopen as a place of solace to visitors as quickly as possible, staff were faced with the daunting task of how to approach recovery work.  Outreach to colleagues has shown that we all have similar questions.  What exactly is on the collections and how is it best removed? The Huntington was able to work with an industrial hygienist and conservation scientist to carry out some initial testing of the collections, though many questions still remain.  We hope to carry out some case study projects to better plan recovery for the most at-risk collections.

We have learned many lessons and hope that sharing those as well as lingering questions will be helpful to others.

On January 7th a fire broke out in the Pacific Palisades, a small group of museum staff at the Getty Villa remained to ensure the safety of the site and the collections. In this presentation, Les Borsay will talk about that day and the challenges they experienced. 

Los Angeles was dealt a serious blow in the opening weeks of 2025 with the devastating Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires. As the smoke cleared, many historic fireplaces were all that remained, like strange grave markers stuck into the ashes of a home. While many people are working to rebuild their lives, at Silverlake Conservation we are salvaging, cleaning, and repairing these historic California tiles. Many of the fireplaces include Batchelder and Claycraft tiles, which were produced during the early part of the 20th century and installed in fireplaces of homes ranging from modest bungalows to hilltop mansions. The rescued tiles represent the only tangible link between Altadena's historic homes and the town's future, taking on greater meaning to the homeowners who are left with little other than the hearths of their homes.

Aside from the bittersweet hope and heartbreak that these tiles now represent, we are continually struck with questions of proper conservation procedure. In our 25 years of treating Batchelder and Claycraft tiles, we have encountered a wide range of damage which have led us to develop clear guidelines and treatment procedures for these historic finishes. However, these tiles present a unique case. They now have acquired an additional period of significance that has left visual, and in some cases structural changes. How do we treat objects that have recently gained a period of significance while adhering to best practices? In this presentation, we will address the historic significance that these unique damages created.

In response to the devastating fires in Los Angeles during January 2025, fire recovery clinics were created to assist residents who were affected by these events. Conservators volunteered to clean fire-damaged objects that residents were able to recover from their property. A dry cleaning method using smoke/soot sponges has proven useful to clean the exterior surfaces of these objects, making them safer to handle. But is dry cleaning enough? Fire-damaged objects are known to be exposed to toxic heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium) during a fire, resulting in the surfaces being embedded with these heavy metals and rendering the objects unsafe to handle. For this project, a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) was used as both an analytical tool to detect the presence of toxic heavy metals on the surface of objects before and after treatment and to assess the efficacy of different treatment methods to remove these toxic elements. Three different treatment methods were chosen: dry cleaning with smoke/soot sponges; wet cleaning with ultrasonic baths; wet cleaning with electrolytic reduction. Several metal objects (copper-alloy, iron, silverplate) and a small terracotta figurine recovered from a residential property in Altadena were chosen for this project, with the kind permission of the owner.

In the aftermath of the California fires, our conservation work has centered on care—care for the artworks entrusted to us, for the people who lost them, and for one another as a team working amid devastation. Every recovery effort has revealed that post-disaster conservation is as much about emotional stewardship as it is about material preservation.

Our projects under the umbrella of LA Art Lab have brought us into close collaboration with artists, collectors, families, and institutions, all navigating profound loss. In these encounters, conservation becomes a bridge between trauma and healing—a practice that honors the memories and meanings embedded in damaged objects. This human dimension has shaped our approach as much as any technical or scientific consideration.

Yet the work has also exposed our team to unseen hazards, from toxic residues such as asbestos and arsenic to the emotional strain of confronting destruction daily. Acknowledging these invisible dangers, we have learned that caring for heritage requires caring for the caregivers. Through new safety protocols and intentional reflection, we’ve sought to sustain both the physical well-being and emotional resilience of our team.

This presentation reflects on conservation as an ecosystem of care—one that connects the preservation of objects to the healing of communities and to the ethical responsibility of self-care within our profession. By sharing our experiences, we hope to contribute to a broader understanding of how empathy, collaboration, and awareness of risk shape meaningful, sustainable recovery in the face of climate-driven disasters.

As paper conservators at Los Angeles Art Conservation (LAAC), we have undertaken numerous projects this year involving collections affected by fire, smoke, and soot/ash. This presentation outlines our professional experiences and evolving methodologies for assessing, treating, and managing fire-damaged works on paper, as well as the collaboration required to plan and implement response on both small and large scales, for a varied clientele.

We begin by discussing our process for understanding fire-induced contamination and/or deterioration, including contamination by combustion byproducts, and in some cases, exposure to intense heat or burning. We will present common dry and aqueous cleaning methods for framed and unframed objects, as well as techniques for safely handling toxic residues. At LAAC, we have surveyed and/or treated objects onsite in burned areas, in offsite storage facilities, and in our lab. We will share considerations and practical tips for working in each of these locations, from PPE to efficient workflow to the importance to pacing oneself. 

Equally critical are the collaborative and logistical aspects of post-fire recovery. Even months after the Eaton and Palisades fires, we are still working through remediation projects both large and small, and the recovery will certainly require a continued long-term effort. We will describe our coordination on one side with owners/collectors, galleries, institutions, and artists to assess and treat their objects, as well as handling the other side including art shippers, warehouses, conservators in other specialties, and insurance companies. 

Beyond the logistics of planning and executing treatment, we have learned a great deal about the emotional work required of these projects. We will share some instances of responding in the moment during client interactions, and provide tips on meeting the emotional needs of others - and ourselves.

Through these reflections, we hope to share practical strategies, ethical considerations, and collaborative frameworks that empower other conservators to respond confidently and compassionately.

The presentation describes the the attempt to save a wall painting inside the Pasadena Jewish Temple Center, previously unknown, whose existence was revealed by conflagration of the Eaton Fire. The extensive fire destroyed all three buildings belonging to the Center, save for a lone two story wall that simultaneously exposed a previously painted mural that revealed itself when the fire burned through plaster that concealed it. Seemingly a biblical depiction of individuals wandering the desert, or perhaps just a tranche de vie of antiquity, it aroused meaning in community members in the face of profound loss. 

The goal of this project was to protect it from imminent forecasted rain and further enviromental exposure while the decision for long term conservation was convened. 

We will discuss ruminations on its portrayal and history, the design and application of conservation and the ambitious effort by a few to save a fragment of a cherished place.

The presenters will share observations on metal objects and artwork recovered from the sites of homes that were completely destroyed by the Palisades Fire. The Palisades Fire was labeled as the third most destructive wildfire, behind the Eaton Fires, that occurred during the Santa Ana wind event in January 2025. Two treatments will be shown that were both informed by owners' wishes and the artworks' unique condition issues, but resulted in vastly different approaches. A small bronze sculpture, Torso in Space by Alexander Archipenko, was ultimately refinished and repatinated. An iron alloy sculpture, maquette for The Walkers by Wang Luyan, required stablization in its new condition following artist input on accepting the extreme changes to the sculpture. This talk will also address concerns related to fire-related hazardous materials present on the recovered artworks, including health and safety protocols during initial handling and treatment, and ensuring the artworks were in a condition safe for display in a home setting. 

The authors hope to broaden the scope of possible outcomes for cherished and otherwise significant metal items that were recovered. We hope to provide a protocol for performing these treatments that can be easily and safely be replicated in hopes that this may broaden accessibility to remediation and treatment of metals for those affected by fires. 

Over the course of the last year, The Conservator’s Easel has been involved in the treatment of paintings affected by the LA wildfires as well as an electrical home fire. Soot and smoke with potentially toxic components have been embedded in these objects and difficult to remove with typical dry, aqueous, and solvent based methods. We turned to gel cleaning as a potential solution for further remediation. PVOH-Borax gel is a clear and malleable material that can be rolled over surfaces to both introduce a light amount of moisture and collect particulate matter. It is cohesive enough to do this without leaving behind any gel. It has been very effective in getting into the texture of woven and painted surfaces to remove what aqueous cleaning cannot. This is evidenced by the fact that it turns yellow (or black!) and removes any lingering smoke odor with repeated applications. While its unadulterated form has been very useful for our purposes, the gel can also be tailored with the addition of solvents, surfactants, and other gelling agents. This short talk will discuss the making of the gel as well as case studies in which the gel has proved useful in cleaning paintings with different levels and types of fire damage.

At Fine Arts Conservation, we have been heavily involved in the remediation efforts after the LA fires. In this short presentation, we would like to discuss two case studies which involved unglazed ceramics. Our first case study occurred shortly after the fires. We were contacted by the artist, Michael Chukes, a ceramicist whose home studio in Altadena was severely damaged by the fires. The extreme heat caused significant alterations to most of his sculptures, causing severe cracking and surface color changes. We agreed to treat two of his surviving artworks - two ceramic busts - which were mostly intact, but had undergone irreversible changes.

Our second case study involves a Native American Wedding Vessel and a Kachina Doll, which were the only surviving objects from a client’s late father’s collection. The client stressed the emotional significance of the objects - her father had a made a special trek to the Mesas to purchase these items directly from the artists themselves. Like our first case study, the objects also had significant surface discolorations as well as glass shards fused into the surface, a direct result from the extreme heat. 

Through these case studies, we will discuss how standard treatment plans in returning the artwork to its original appearance was impossible. Instead, the goal was to implement a plan that focused post-fire material fragility and preserving structural integrity in a reconfigured state. Furthermore, we observed a drastic shift in priorities, as the objects re-contextualized themselves into symbols of survival, positive transformation, and unconditional acceptance by the owners.  

Questions we continue to ponder on: Is the treatment we performed appropriate for unglazed ceramics? Is it possible to remove soot entirely from porous objects? Does it even matter? What is the future stability of these objects?